The Experimental Humanities concentration at Bard College, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will host a two-day conference on the theme of global-local experiments in the arts and humanities.

The sciences and the arts have long used experimental methods to move from local circumstances (or, “deracinated particulars” in Francis Bacon’s words) to general, global discoveries, knowledge, and modes of expression. Over two days, this conference will foreground conversations that address the challenge of negotiating place-specific research and teaching with the desire for global interactions and exchanges.

Conference events will explore the relationships between technology and human experience as they play out across local and global contexts. Segments of each day will be organized around topics like human rights and viral activism, games and gaming, public engagement with scholarly research, the senses (touch, sound, vision) in digital society, and novel approaches to teaching and learning. The conference will feature prominent thinkers on these subjects from around the world, as well as a number of hands-on workshops, interactive experiences, and other opportunities for attendee participation.

This conference is presented by Experimental Humanities at Bard College and generously funded through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Experimental Humanities is Bard’s liberal arts-driven answer to the Digital Humanities; it is an interdisciplinary scholarly and curricular initiative that examines how technologies mediate what it means to be human using theoretical, historical, and practice-based methods. The conference will provide an opportunity to ask what features of this approach and the approaches of other institutions can be adapted to different educational, social, and institutional contexts.